In
the olden days, teenagers gossiped about who was dating whom. Or who was
wearing what. Or who’d done this to that. Times have changed. Now they invent
stories about who has COVID or who should be quarantining. A teacher at my daughter’s
school came up to her in the hall and asked her why she wasn’t home
quarantining—classmate X had said my daughter and another friend were in
quarantine because a third friend had COVID.
No, said my daughter, she didn’t have COVID. She’d already done a rapid
test that was negative.
When
I took her to the internist for the rapid COVID test, I was ushered out to the
stairwell, where, ensconced in my FFP mask and plastic face shield, I stood
reading, shrinking toward the back wall whenever anyone exited the premises or
arrived in the elevator. My corona app continues to inform me that I had “one
encounter” with “low risk” and that could have been on the tram or in the
supermarket. My daughter texted me: “I have to wait fifteen minutes for
results.” The oversize Q-Tip up the nose had been anything but pleasant. The
fifteen minutes turned into thirty. I WhatsApped, “??????” but she was still
waiting. Another ten minutes rolled by. “I bin waitin’ on the railllroad,” I
texted. She emerged. “Negative!” Right behind her, a woman with a grim look
emerged, the words of a nurse behind her audible: “Call us if it gets worse.”
Once the infected person had left, we held our breath and charged down the
stairs. In the open air we breathed again and I went into the local pharmacy to
stock up on FFP masks.
At
my teenager’s high school, orchestra rehearsals have just been cancelled
“because of rising cases of COVID,” even though the windows are always wide
open, the musicians sit six feet apart, and the wind instruments, who can’t
wear masks, have an elaborate segregated area all their own. Meanwhile, gym
class in a room with maskless sweaty boys dashing about and almost no
ventilation takes place regularly. A teacher was spotted on a video giving a
speech at an anti-maskers protest. Where going maskless was de rigueur. Another teacher said
something along the lines of COVID being “not that bad.” Reportedly, a local
doctor writes anyone who wants one a medical excuse claiming the person cannot
wear a mask because of breathing problems. When the movers came to take my
furniture to my new apartment, several weren’t wearing masks. I offered one an
FFP and he thanked me. But didn’t wear it. The next time I saw him he had on a
thin cloth mask. I retreated upstairs.
Like
Greta Garbo, I Vant To Be Alone. But
I’m a relatively old person. I can write, do a few ballet exercises, use my
cross trainer. From time to time I like to come out to see my family, even if
only on Zoom. I rejoice to see my kids in person whenever doing so is possible.
But I feel for those who can’t be alone, hope they survive, and yearn for them
to keep their contagion to themselves.
